If we are washed clean by the Blood, if salvation is a free gift and not by works, if we have been perfected forever, if our sins were as crimson but now are as white as snow, then what purpose would purgatory serve? It doesn’t make sense.
Agree! Only by the shedding of blood is there remission of sins - that’s what God’s word says.
And that question of yours does say that you may not know how the Church defines purgatory -- the Church defines is exactly as "being washed clean by the Blood", the Church states very clearly that "salvation is a free gift and we cannot save ourselves". The Church very clearly states that we ARE perfected by the Christ's sacrifice.
You and I have sinned in our lives and these are purified by Christ. The purification continues until we reach heaven where we are completely and utterly devoid of sin. That purification at the point of death to entering heaven is purgatory.
Purgatory is not a place, not a time (as heaven is out of place and time) but the ultimate part of the process of purification through the blood of Christ that works through us through our lives thanks to the grace of God.