When I read this passage, it calls to my mind a similar passage in the Gospel of Matthew 📖
“I tell you, on the day of judgment men will render account for every careless word they utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”—Matthew 12:36-37 (RSVCE)
All things must come to light 🔅. Both of these verses point to when this happens, which is our own personal, particular judgment, at the “evening of life.”
“Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven—through a purification or immediately—or immediate and everlasting damnation.”—CCC 1022
If you or I stand proudly and pigheadedly 🐖 by our past careless words right through our death but are still in God’s grace and friendship, I believe that Purgatory will be that process where we eventually, willfully, loose our stubborn grip on them in our soul.
In my post, Purgatory: Purification by Replaying Life’s Painful Moments?, I speak more about the state of Purgatory.
