“So when a Catholic dies, his soul lays unconscious in the ground until the judgment?”
There’s two Final Judgements. One is for those who die now. They will see Christ and be judged.
The second will come after the time of tribulation, when the world ends and Christ returns to Earth.
So depending on which you refer to, depends on the answer to your question. Purgatory is the cleansing of those who are already saved prior to entering heaven. So it would occur, after Christ judges a person, and determines whether or not they will suffer Hell or rejoice in heaven.
“It’s like you might attend a wedding wearing dirty old rags...You are not rejected or sent off because you look so poorly...Your clothes are ripped off of you and burned and you are given a new suit of white linen...Right on the spot”
The scripture actually says that the one who’s works are burnt that they will still be saved, but only as one escaping through the fire. Fire burns. Fire hurts. To escape through the fire means that you yourself will be burnt by the flames before you reach through the other side. Burnt and purified.
No sacrifice or penance on our part can remove our sins or make us more holy. Jesus has done everything. His perfect life fulfilled God’s law in our place. His death paid the price for sin’s penalty. He sent his own Spirit to baptize us into his family and dress us up for eternity. All of the riches of God’s free grace and salvation are given freely to the soul who clings to Jesus in simple trust!
It doesn't say that in the scripture that I read...
1Co 3:15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
It says 'saved; yet so as by fire'...Not even saved by fire but saved as by fire...
The works get burned, not the man...No purgatory...